"A Bad Bet By The Dodgers" by Daniel Guss
Tommy Lasorda's awful '65 decision led to a decade when The Azul always fell short
With the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2024 home opener today, their inaugural season with a once-in-a-century player in Shohei Ohtani is already under a dark cloud as a sports betting scandal involving his interpreter has sparked investigations and intrigue.
It’s just the latest chapter in a not-always-fantastic team history.
In 1965, a 20-year old aspiring dentist and baseball player at USC wanted a $50,000 bonus to sign with the Dodgers, which offered him just $2,000. That $48,000 difference was worth roughly $472,000 in modern-day money.
The Dodgers made a colossal mistake not giving it to him.
On March 23rd of that year, a Dodger scout named Tom Lasorda made a prescient report on the young ballplayer:
“This boy showed a real good fast ball with good life. Has real good command of point of release. Boy has slider type of curve but could improve as he has good arm action and should be able to come up with good curve. Boy has plenty of desire to pitch and wants to beat you.”
Oh boy!
Lasorda, the future Dodgers manager, was right, but balked at the player’s counter-offer, reportedly telling the kid, “Good luck in your dental career.” In fairness to the gruff Lasorda, he probably didn’t have the final word on signing him.
The student’s name was Tom Seaver, soon to be known by the superlatives Tom Terrific and The Franchise. Instead of signing with the Dodgers, he had a subsequent deal with the Atlanta Braves invalidated that cost him his scholarship at USC. Seaver finally signed with the New York Mets, an expansion club that was the worst team in baseball since its 1962 inception.
The Dodgers could have used Seaver’s help.
In 1966, the Dodgers got swept in the World Series by the Baltimore Orioles, and didn’t score a single run in Games 2, 3 or 4. They lost the last two games by scores of 1-0. But they were perhaps one or two players away from winning their third championship of the decade.
As a 22-year-old in 1967, Seaver won the rookie-of-the-year award for the struggling Mets, and made the All Star team. In 1969, he won his first Cy Young Award, came in second place for National League MVP and, with a 25-7 record, led the Mets to a stunning 5-game upset of the same dominant Orioles for the Mets’ first championship after finishing in last place or next to last place in each of its first seven seasons.
Seaver went on to win 311 games despite playing on teams, mostly the Mets, that were more often shaky than great.
The Dodgers really could have used Seaver’s help.
Almost always a contender, the Dodgers went 95-66 in 1973, but failed to reach the World Series. Seaver, that season, went 19-10 with a league leading 2.08 ERA and landed his second Cy Young Award.
In 1974, the Dodgers lost in the World Series to the defending champs, the Oakland A’s. Seaver had the National League’s best strikeout-per-9-innings ratio and the best strikeout-to-walks ratio.
In 1975, the Dodgers finished in second place, while Seaver went 22-9 and won his third Cy Young Award.
Then it got really painful for The Azul.
After finishing in second place again in 1976, the Dodgers lost back-to-back World Series to the dastardly New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978. Seaver, now a Cincinnati Red, went 30-17 in those seasons.
With Lasorda at the helm, the Dodgers finally won a championship in the strike-shortened 1981 season, their first since 1965. Seaver kept chugging along at 14-2.
Sometimes, it’s better to pay the money and get the talent. If Lasorda did that with Seaver in the 60s, their three losses in the World Series in the 70s might have turned out differently, as talent like Seaver’s often lures other talent to teams.
With the 2024 Dodgers season, which started in Seoul as the Ohtani scandal broke, now on LA’s doorstep, let’s hope that the Dodgers didn’t make another bad bet.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a multi-award-winning journalist. In June ‘23, he won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards. He has been City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)